his hand "What? One wakes to a knowledge of the world and of life--one
is wretched, one sees that there is such a thing as happiness, and how
it may be obtained, and one is not to stretch out a hand to grasp it?
You would really be so cruel as to say to a woman--young, and in need
of love--in childish ignorance and folly you were guilty of a mistake,
all is over for you, abandon all claims to love and hope, sunshine and
life, pass your years in mourning, and bury yourself alive, you have no
further right to share in the joys of life?"

Wilhelm left her string of passionate questions unanswered, and
continued the thread of his former discourse:

"But most certainly an older and more sensible woman, who should have
learned wisdom from a first error, has no right to be guilty of a
second one."

"Oh, how hard you are!" murmured the countess.

"What would you have?" said Wilhelm. Then with a sudden inspiration: "A
woman has every right to love; but then you have loved--twice."

"No, no, not even once. I thought so perhaps, but--"

"But, according to your own assertion this afternoon, one has been in
love really if only one seriously believes one is. And it is thankless
to deny one's love later on. Do not contradict yourself."

"And you, monsieur le philosophe," she returned, raising her head, and
her burning gaze encompassed him as with a circle of fire, "do you not
contradict yourself too? A little while ago you were demonstrating to
me that you were a part of nature, and that unknown natural forces were
at work within you, directing all you did, and to-day you extol the
mortification of the flesh, which certainly has nothing to do with your
unknown natural forces."

He was going to reply, but she laid her soft hand upon his mouth.

"Oh, please, monsieur le philosophe, do not prove to me that I am
wrong. Be indulgent to my inconsistencies, as well as to everything
else, I know I am full of contradictions. I am no German philosopher.
But nature too is full of contradictions--first day, then night--now
summer, now winter. But in spite of it all I can be very consistent and
true to myself in a question of real importance."

Wilhelm drew away from the hand that caressed his lips and cheek, and
said, averting his eyes:

"You are a beautiful woman, and have a most exceptional mind, and it
must be happiness indeed to be loved by you, but in order that that
happiness might be full, one would have to love you in return